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New Zealand scraps world-first smoking ‘generation ban’ to fund tax cuts (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 11 months ago by stopthatgirl7@kbin.social to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml

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Health experts say axing plan to block sales of tobacco products to next generation will cost thousands of lives

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[-] trebuchet@lemmy.ml 71 points 11 months ago

Lol sounds like this increases tax revenues by increasing the number of addicted smokers buying cigarettes and then taxing the sales.

Really sound government policy there.

[-] livus@kbin.social 26 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

They have actually admitted this is going to be revenue gathering. NZ has some of the highest tobacco tax in the world.

Basically their election promise was tax cuts, which they intended to do by allowing more foriegn ownership of real estate and taxing it.

After the election they found out they could only govern with the help of a populist party and a libertarian party.

The populists won't allow more foriegn ownership of real estate. Meanwhile the libertarians' wet dream is stuff like more ~~lung cancer~~ tobacco.

So we get shitty last minute law changes we didn't see coming, like this one.

[-] Vornikov@kbin.social -3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

The populists won't allow more foriegn ownership of real estate.

I don't see a single problem here. Fuck, I wish Australia would get behind this.

Also good, fuck prohibition laws. Leave them in the fucking past where they belong. If I want to slowly kill myself by inhaling burning plant matter, then that's my decision. The taxes I pay more than cover my eventual cost to the state's healthcare system. The government does not get to dictate what I do with my own body.